+53 School isn't the problem, most students are just lazy. amirite?

by Anonymous 2 days ago

It's also a parent issue. Most don't care how their kids are doing in school just that they'll eventually graduate.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

That's true parent involvement or lack of it makes a huge difference. If kids grow up in a home where education isn't valued or no one checks in on their progress, it's easy for them to fall into bad habits. Teachers can only do so much if there's no reinforcement at home.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Many dont even care about that. I have a friend at an elementary school who says you start seeing the seperation in chikdrens achievement around third grade because the kids start realizing the parents dont gaf if they do their work or not and teachers cant really do anything about it if they dont or do bare minimum.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

I agree with that. My youngest began to fall through the cracks in 3rd because I'm a hardass on homework and reinforcing concepts they learn. But early in the year, I because hospitalized until halfway through the year, and my husband just doesn't emphasize the importance of an education, so she didn't care then either. Now she's caught up and realized she needs to do her work.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Exactly, too many parents only care about the diploma, not the learning.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

In a way the system as a whole is to blame for this. Employers in my country want you to have a dinplima, but never ask what your grades were or how you got it.

by nienowrita 2 days ago

Use to have a saying in college like 20 years ago, Cs get degrees.

by Framistan 2 days ago

That's what a lot of people say. But if you go into an interview as a young person fresh out of highschool or college and show them a transcript with very good marks, they are most likely going to consider you over someone else who didn't show that information or who's resume/CV shows that it took them 4 years to get through a 2 year program without any specific reason why it took that long. Sure, your performance in school might not be the only thing that matters, but often people who did well in school will have a better grasp of important skills and be able to conduct themselves in interviews much better. Sure there will be people who do well in school but are terrible at interviews or maybe even don't have any actual skills. But there's a good correlation between doing well in school and having skills necessary to perform well at a job. Even if it's just people who work hard at school generally work hard in the workplace.

by raheemcartwrigh 2 days ago

Yeah, I also remember there being a healthy fear of authority that doesn't seem as prevalent today. It just took a teacher slightly raising their voice to get most of us in line, and then even the worst behaved kids would usually get in line after a light punishment. Now it sounds like kids are calling their teacher's bluff more and more.

by boehmpatience 2 days ago

Because they know their parents won't give any actual consequences either lol

by Anonymous 2 days ago

It's worse than non-involvement. Many parents enable their kids' disengagement. My school has had to issue too many trespass orders for parents who threatened to fight teachers for enforcing basic rules. Those kids then throw off the environment and drag other kids down. I'll take an uninvolved parent over an enabling one.

by Top-Amphibian-2288 2 days ago

That's because school is largely designed as free babysitting.

by carterclarabell 2 days ago

It's because for most parents school is cheap child care.

by Kozeycandace 2 days ago

Agreed. There is such a bigger lack of parent support and engagement. If parents don't care, why should students?

by irma00 2 days ago

"We never learned this in school!!" My former classmates, discussing something we definitely learned in school

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Or the opposite and people say something we learned in school is pointless like some math classes. As if someone, particularly STEM students, would make no use of it.

by wbashirian 2 days ago

Then people confuse things like city with most murders with city with most murders per 100,000 people and make life or political decisions based on that.

by Fit-Yogurt8660 2 days ago

I hear this all the time about personal finance (how to save/invest, how to do taxes, etc) but it's literally a graduation requirement in my state. Not even an elective course, you HAD to take it.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Your state is an exception, not the norm unfortunately.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Actually nowadays a large majority require something along those lines. It may not be a whole class, but integrated into something else like economics which is required. Probably wasn't true 20 years ago.

by Janiyarutherfor 2 days ago

Yeah I assumed so. Connecticut is pretty good about what is a graduation requirement and what isn't. I also had to take a semester long civics course.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

We had a half semester personal finance class. Mostly focused on things like how to balance a checkbook or file a W2. We definitely did not learn the first thing about investing, what a Roth IRA is, what an ETF is, etc. 8 weeks doesn't cover much.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Eh, I kind of push back that school needs to teach you EVERYTHING. Investing advice is not applicable to a large percentage of students and honestly there are 10 million online resources for many things. I think schools need to teach you that you need to file taxes once a year. Keep any document that is sent to you about taxes until time to file. They really shouldn't waste too much time on HOW to do taxes because it is always changing, varies a lot state to state, is mostly automated online anyways, and isn't that hard.

by Janiyarutherfor 2 days ago

My high school did not even go over any of what you are describing. I took many AP classes and had a very high GPA. (I'm in Texas) Now, I did have a class that combined macroeconomics and government— and that class was interrupted very intensely by COVID my senior year— so maybe they would have gone over those details, but I think it was made clear it wasn't meant to be a class for your personal finances…

by Anonymous 2 days ago

My state didn't even do that.

by Select_Sympathy_4698 2 days ago

My teacher decided to go away with the whole checkbook balancing unit and chose to teach how to start an IRA or 401K instead. I'm glad she did.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

It's been an elective at every high school I've ever seen, going back to the 2000's. They just never took it. They also teach trades, but I'll give them that because the school system sent mixed signals about career options that aren't college.

by raulabernathy 2 days ago

Probably not in the south

by Personal-System-3214 1 day ago

I never took it class of 08

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Correct. I've taught myself finance, I didn't complain how school or my parents didn't teach me. As an adult, you are responsible for your life

by Anonymous 1 day ago

School can make them lazy though.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

The school system is cathering to one type of children, completely disregarding different ways to learn. My sister was failing HARD at school despite all the work she put him (extra homework, tutoring 3 times a week). Nothing helped. Then they put her in a class where they would let them learn at their own pace, no teacher in front for hours spewing things they had to memorized, and all of a sudden, she did 2 years of maths within 6 months with excellent grade. Even if she flunked 2 years, she graduated at the same time as her friends. So no, most kids are not lazy, they just learn differently and the school still have those antiquated practice that doesn't suit them.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

And writes off students with bad grades as "not interested in higher learning" without ever asking them first.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Everyone loves to blame the "education system" for their failures It's an education system failure.

by ydaugherty 1 day ago

Almost like it's a bad system. Y'know, like the person you're replying to clearly said?

by ApartDrama1873 1 day ago

So instead of blaming the system because the solution isn't clear we blame the kids?

by Successful-Store 1 day ago

Montessori schools exist. Put more effort and resources into education at a federal and state level. Idk repackage 5% of the defense budget into schools. We can figure out how to bomb someone hidden below ground on the other side of the planet from our couch, but we can't figure out how to teach 2 different 5th graders in a class?

by Personal-System-3214 1 day ago

One makes money and one doesn't. Not to mention poor people are easier to control if they're dumb. No point in properly educating them

by jenkinsjules 1 day ago

you actually just brought up a serious issue within the school system that needs changed. we NEED smaller classes

by laurenwehner 1 day ago

Congratulations, you have just identified one way in which the system is failing those kids.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

... Less kids per teacher? Duh?

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Being neurotypical sounds wild Everything must be so simple

by General-Gazelle 1 day ago

Learning disorders, autism, sensory issues, trauma or ADhS is a thing too but not sure if op put enough effort to learn about this or if op was just to lazy

by Anonymous 1 day ago

So the class wasn't going fast enough for her? I don't understand. Did you guys ever figure out what the disconnect was once she was on the self paced path?

by armstrongabel 1 day ago

Sure, if you ignore that a student's effort only works when the system actually supports learning.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

How about the system at home? One of the biggest arguments of raising the pay for schools is that they're the ones raising the students. So I would think that if parents took responsibility for their children and nurtured them, that the children would do much better in the public school system than the other way around.

by kihnsid 1 day ago

As someone who is tied to the school system inner workings, the parents today have all the power. They will complain, manipulate, and get their way about anything, regardless of if their child was wrong or not. There is zero accountability at home anymore from school related issues. Parents and phones being allowed are the two biggest issues

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Oh man don't you hate it when parents are allowed /s

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Well, maybe the point went over my head but kids supported at home do better in school. Tutors, parental assistance, constructive play (applicable to ages), nutrition, exercise, social life. The kid who has deadbeat parents doesn't have a social life outside of school, so any failures that brings to light (of which there are many, eg bullying), are exacerbated by the kid not having a reference of what a normal social life should be.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

putting in the effort and manifesting true desire to learn will always carry you forward and help you succeed. That would be nice, but it's simply untrue. Of course school always will require effort and desire, as do all human activities. But there simply are significant barriers to many student's learning, that most won't be able to get past if we don't do something about it.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

I also come to say that it's very country/system-specific. Schools in East Asian systems are definitely the problem.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

That's actually true, but just calling it "lazyness" is also a bit lazy.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

How so? OP specifically addresses the kids who just didn't do what they should have and were basically lazy. These kids and situations do exist. There's plenty of kids that are given a fair and honest shot and just choose not to take advantage of it. The kids that are dealing with extra circumstances that are lashing out because of problems elsewhere also exist but that's not what's being discussed here.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

I was one of those kids who didn't do what they should have. But do you know when I was told what I should be doing? Two weeks before graduation. "Oh you needed to be getting much better grades, you needed to be doing extracurriculars, you needed to be applying to colleges. We just didn't tell you any of this because your grades weren't great in middle school so we assumed you weren't interested in college" Literally four years of "Choose college, go to college" and being expected to know that passing my classes wasn't good enough. Without being told that wasn't good enough.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Wanting to do other things isn't laziness. It's distinterest

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Yeah the real issue of true laziness stems from parents anyways. Kids aren't being educated at home properly which is half the issue. Especially when the parent themselves was also pushed through the system from Bush era policy.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

No, there are massive differences in test scores, resources, staffing levels, and everything else from school to school esp when they are supported by property taxes, so the rich have super nice schools. Do you think poor people just don't try lol

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Right? My school didn't have a nurse or hot water. They also sometimes just ran out of food and we just had to eat like, rolls or something.

by alexieohara 1 day ago

In a lot of cases, yes. Not all.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

i see it differently. The school system itself has flaws. Not everyone learns the same way... the kids ahead of the curve get bored and act out, the ones struggling feel left behind, and only those in the middle really do well. School feels more about conformity (uniforms, timekeeping, permission for everything) than helping students grow in areas they're actually good at. After the basics like English, maths, and science, the focus should shift to what each student enjoys or is best at. Personally, I always felt capable, but I was disengaged and bored. If someone had recognised my strength with computers and tech early on, I could've thrived instead of being labelled as unmotivated or troublesome

by EconomyCommand741 1 day ago

The problem is it's impossible to educate a small classroom with 32 kids in it all different ways. It's either everyone can learn to sit and be quiet and listen to the teacher or everyone is going to fail. Maybe they need more alternative schools for the kids who can't do that but that's a huge amount of resources dedicated to those kids.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

That's where Guidance Counselors are supposed to be stepping in. Talking to a student and figuring out what's the issue, what are your goals, how do we get you there. In my school though they didn't do that. The guidance counselors only met with the students already doing well. Otherwise you never heard from nor saw them. And how the hell is that supposed to help?

by Anonymous 1 day ago

I don't know if this is a US-Centred opinion but if this was in the UK (at least the school I went to) but kids DO get to choose what they do outside of English maths and science from age 14 and don't even have to do those after age 16.

by ResponsibleWeb 1 day ago

Nope, I'm also UK, I just felt let down by my education. I'm doing well now luckily but I know I could have done way more had I been given the right tools growing up.

by EconomyCommand741 1 day ago

School is the problem. I work in Education policy and am an education researcher. Parents wouldn't need to complain if the system wasn't fundamentally flawed. 100 bad habits learned at school - supermemo.guru The lack of mastery learning and lack of freedom has made it less rewarding in comparison to better learning methods.

by Itchy-Escape1342 1 day ago

Maybe the system is boring and totally incompatible with human nature.

by External-Meal3534 1 day ago

The smart, hard working kids "do fine" because they're underachieving. Public school does a disservice to kids twice: by not challenging and fostering talent and by not pulling up the struggling kids. So a superficial assessment that the hard workers did "fine" is not actually a win. Those kids should be taking college level classes and needing to study to understand things, not cruising through easy classes of busy work without needing to ever study and running into a brick wall when they get to college. There's a reason parents are desperate to move their gifted kids to a charter, magnet, or private school when they realize they're talented. Their potential is wasted in public school and they need to maximize that to get the best scholarships they can in college. This is a shortsighted take.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Are they lazy or are they disengaged? You learn in school about auditory learners, visual learners, etc, then you still go through 12 years (in America) of every student being taught the same exact way.

by Hermaneliezer 1 day ago

You mean by teacher going over the material (auditory), teacher drawing what they're explaining on the blackboard and giving the textbooks to read (visual), assigning homework (learn by doing)...

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Learning styles is debunked

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Since when? I've only been out of the teaching game about 15 years, and back then it was still very much at the forefront of teaching and training. Genuinely curious, since I haven't heard anything about it from my friends still teaching.

by Mayertmagnus 1 day ago

The whole "types of learners" thing has been thoroughly debunked as a myth at this point.

by Janiyarutherfor 1 day ago

I think people try to put the dictomy of "Good students and bad students" and I don't think it is that? Something more accurate would be good learners and bad learners. A bad learner can go from someone who is trying but struggles with the material to someone who parties every day, the school system isn't to blame for those who don't put in the effort (when they clearly needed it) but for those who do try and still struggle hard.

by Danboehm 1 day ago

There are also good learners who also party all night but since they know how to internalize the material don't need to put in that extra effort, I think effort relies more on your necesity to do it and it is a bad way to focus on that stuff.

by Danboehm 1 day ago

Who has more responsibility: the students whose brains are still developing, or the adults we pay five-figure salaries to make sure they learn? Sincerely, a former teacher

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Now that I think about it more. Pretty much everything we learned in class was based around passing tests. Teachers would say "Here's what you need for the test coming up in 4 weeks" and that was the entire basis of their teaching, getting us to memorize things that would completely leave our brain after the test was over. But as long as we got good tests score they didn't care if we retained any information

by One_Currency 1 day ago

I will say that this is the byproduct of No Child Left Behind which ties funding to performance on standardized tests, but will also say when a kid asks me a question about history or geography no matter how unrelated it is it makes my day and I answer it.

by Impressive-Bad 1 day ago

No it's pretty much the school

by Big-Listen 1 day ago

Regarding the whole "wait, we pay the tariffs???" thing... Yeah, I definitely remember learning this in high school. And again in college, though I won't hold that against anyone for not going to college. But this was definitely covered in high school. Basically every "why didn't they teach us this in school" is about something we learned in school. Many people are dumb and proudly reject information now

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Majority of teachers are straight up idiots. It's not like we're taking all the smart people and making them teachers.

by Complex_Cow 1 day ago

Different people respond to different environments. Thus, the people we might call "diligent and hardworking" in the current environment, might have been the "lazy incompetent" ones, if our school environment was set up to favor other personality types. Seeing it as a black and white, that some people are just "inherently" lazy and others are not, is not a good, accurate or productive perspective to take.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

It's a lot easier and comforting to believe that you succeeded because of merit and that everyone else is just inferior and unfixable. If the system is working specifically in your favor, it doesn't need to be fixed. Really sad mentality.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

I work with a retired school teacher and she even says that while some kids are lazy af you also have most schools not catering to a childs needs and instead allowing that child to fall behind. I dont think its all the schools fault, as others have said its an issue with parents aswell.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

There are some real problems with education that aren't widely known. The biggest is a method of teaching reading that emphasizes context cues over phonics. When students struggle with reading because they were never taught to decode the words it has a domino effect through the whole school system. I've heard rumors that there are similar failings in math instruction. Most schools promote bullying in a way that few acknowledge. I've seen success at minimizing student bullying, but in those environments the teachers still do it.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

That's not so much an unpopular opinion as an opinion that is unpopular amongst students. We teachers have known this a while. It started roughly around the time of No Child Left Behind and just got worse and worse every year after that. An example of non-educators creating education policy. The results have been pretty sad. In a way, that IS school failing them. Teaching to a test makes people lazy and gives kids that "just give me my diploma and get me out of here" mentality. This is going to blow some of your minds, but learning could be, and should be, interesting and fun. But I personally believe the only people in seats at a school should be people who want to learn stuff. Everyone else should become parents' responsibility. You take care of them on your time, and on your dime. We're pretty sick of being your babysitters day in day out for 12 years strictly because capitalism demands laborers and you have no idea what to do with offspring while you're being laborers.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Agreed. Teaching to the test doesn't allow for critical thinking and as a result has turned education into mindless regurgitation of bullet points. They know who, what, where and when but why isn't a factor, often actively discouraged, and that's arguably the most important part.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

And you should see what it did to extracurriculars, art, the humanities, and just ... anything that's not mandated.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Mmhmm. I put my kids in a classical education charter school "district" for that reason. Its art and musical programs were stellar too.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

and the kids who studied and actually paid attention did fine. Oh my sweet summer child... have you ever heard about learning disabilities and neurodiversity ? This is not an opinion, this is just ignorant rambling of someone who was privileged enough to be good at school.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

-privileged enough to be good at school- OMFG!!! you're too much!

by Anonymous 1 day ago

I think the thing people get frustrated with at school is that a lot of actual useful things aren't taught. And I get a lot of people who will work at sales don't need to do chemistry or physics. But I agree if you actually do the homework and pay attention school isn't too bad and learn a lot of much needed things

by Both-Evening-1132 1 day ago

Yeah that's true. I think problem solving and comprehension is important too

by Both-Evening-1132 1 day ago

We must be in different countries but that does sound cool! I think a cooking would be very useful!

by Both-Evening-1132 1 day ago

Nah there are some schools that will let you graduate even if you don't show up for half the school year because their funding is based on graduation percentage instead of an actual standardized metric. But you are right in that students are more lazy now because of social media and the internet.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Parenting issue.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

It's also not the students fault. Especially if we're talking about teens and younger. Parents raising them have no idea how to manage the screen time era.

by Qvonrueden 1 day ago

If ‘most' of anything is an outlier to you, maybe you didn't pay attention in school

by Confident_Radish 1 day ago

A lack of disciplinary action is the problem. That plus many schools lack a good physical education program which is needed for balance

by Kuhlmanalvah 1 day ago

So I agree with you but there is something I want to add. We do have a responsibility to try and help and teach children despite their flaws like laziness, desire to not pay attention, tantrums, etc.

by Traditional_Leave 1 day ago

It's a problem because we've standardized how we teach when people don't all learn the same way.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

So what if someone LEARNS a lot but still struggles? You just gonna say they are lazy? I agree that SOME students are just lazy and its their fault that they fail but you are going into another end

by Anonymous 1 day ago

If the majority of students aren't learning then the system should be examined. We shouldn't be focusing on who is at fault, it should be about improving

by Anonymous 1 day ago

I personally don't see a majority of students learning without a nationwide parenting intervention, but I think schools should try everything they can in the meantime.

by Impressive-Bad 1 day ago

There are hosts of issues, bad parenting being one of them. In an ideal world we would look at the fact that kids aren't learning and ask why and how we could fix it, but we don't live there

by Anonymous 1 day ago

This is mostly true, but i think you missed a huge section of your school that was quiet, not social, and struggling pretty badly with the material

by Anonymous 1 day ago

I kind of agree but the blame should be on the parents not the kids. You are a victim of your own upbringing. Most parents only care about passing + free baby sitting and not about their children actually learning something

by ResponsibleWeb 1 day ago

I think the big emphasis here is that this isn't a generational statement, this is a fact of the human condition. There have always been lazy kids, and there still are.

by Visible-Pin 1 day ago

I did terrible in high school. It wasn't until my 20s that I realized how important education and skills are to success in life. Some parents are better at teaching kids this. Some of us have to learn the hard way once we're adults.

by homenickjulia 1 day ago

It can be a student thing. It can also be a million other factors. Not only relating to the school system but the systems around it. Countless studies have shown how education systems in places like the US and UK are not designed to support children with things like learning difficulties. Many schools do not have the resources to properly support students who have things like difficult home situation, are in foster care, have a disability, mental health issues etc. Not to mention every countries education system is different. This isn't an idea solely coming from people who "failed" the education system. It is an idea echoed by parents, teachers, charities etc. We know everyone is different, we know children develop at different rates, we know everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. So how is a one size fits all education system ever going to be the ideal?

by Anonymous 1 day ago

No, the education system is broken and lazy students are only one part of the problem.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

I feel like this shouldn't be an unpopular opinion. Yea, schools have flaws, but at least in NA, the pacing of classes is pretty slow. Even putting in an hour a day of solid effort should get you a passing grade. When I used to go to public school, I remember my immigrant friends laughing at what we were learning in Gr.12 because they were learning the stuff in like Gr. 9.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Absolutely true

by Anonymous 1 day ago

I mean, What do u expect? That's kids for you. The school could do more. I did fine in public school, but I know a lot of people who genuinely struggled with attention who never got the help they received and suffered due to it. Also remember that laziness can be a reaction to a lack of help, leading to being fed up.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Have you considered that not everyone has the same learning style? Some kids absolutely just don't care or try, but some kids try their best but just can't learn the way the school is teaching

by Anonymous 1 day ago

In the UK, people who went to private schools make up only 6% of the population. Yet they make up 66% of CEOS, 81% of prime ministers, 40% of recent Brit award winners, and 35% of BAFTA nominated actors. I think it's lazy to boil it down to laziness.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Education system isn't perfect, its also too focused on good grades instead of learning. Hence why students are using ChatGPT to cheat their way through it.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

You're missing it's the educational systems job to make students NOT lazy. Laziness is a learned behavior.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

The system design is that parents explain to the child why doing well at school is important, school delivers the education in combinarion with the student's effort, and the student gets educated. Many parents dont do their part, so kids dont put in the effort, appearing lazy. It's not an 8-year-old's fault that his parents tell him that school is a waste of time.

by boscotheresia 1 day ago

Congratulations, you are halfway towards understanding that what you are describing is, in fact, shortcomings of the education system. If some kids are truly lazy and don't want to put the work in, and the system isn't able to engage those children and so all that happens is they fall behind, then that is absolutely an issue with the education system. It's a system that literally exists to educate children. Do you somehow think children (I'm going to say the word again, because maybe you need to hear it: CHILDREN) will on average have a developed and thorough enough understanding of the importance of their own education and how to apply themselves? Or, rather, do you think perhaps the system whose purpose is to educate those children should account for the fact that many won't want to put the work in?

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Well nothing says success and education like complaining to a bunch of strangers on social media.

by bradtketaya 1 day ago

I graduated with honors. I think the public school system has a ton of problems. The biggest is that philosophically, it's a workforce factory. The aim is absolutely not to educate. The aim is to get as many kids as possible through with a diploma so that they can go to college and get a job. There are individual teachers with a passion to teach, but the system makes it hard for them to instill a love of learning in their students.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Absolute. It's more the parents and students more than anything. These kids have no drive or goals/work ethic. Sad

by Anonymous 1 day ago

I could be someone who has this opinion, but I'm not. So I'm doing ok in life

by Florian41 23 hours ago

NYC education cost per student is one of the highest in the nation and the results are in the middle. People always default to lack of fundjng as the reason why

by Anonymous 23 hours ago

Students today "rack disaprine"

by Sea-Regular5454 23 hours ago

Most parents just don't want their kids to fail and it has become practically impossible to fail. Part of that is on the school systems but a lot is on the parents.

by Low_Leg 23 hours ago

Systems are meant to serve us, not the other way around. If so many children are not succeeding the answer isn't that they are simply rotten lazy children. Life is different now. Comparing your childhood to today isn't fair or logical. Systems need to evolve or be rebuilt to actually work, not just bitching down at the kids.

by ElectricalInjury 23 hours ago

Nah the US school system is deeply flawed. You going to an alright school doesn't change that lol. My girlfriend has horror stories from pretty much every school she went to. Being belittled and mocked by teachers. Ridiculous rules like segregating boys and girls. All my US friends have similar stories. US schools are chronically under funded and teachers are grossly under paid. Those aren't opinions, they're just facts.

by Anonymous 23 hours ago

Every kid ever is inherently lazy so blaming them is asinine. The difference in their actions are just a reflection of their environment. Kids are in school during the day for plenty of time to achieve the educational outcomes we desire if we used proper staffing ratios and evidence based teaching methods. The fact is we don't invest in making that happen because we don't value education. School is absolutely the problem.

by hkemmer 22 hours ago

The system, as it is, only works for a certain type of student.

by Honest-Location-3598 22 hours ago

disagree. the way school teaches (at least in the UK) is not to actually learn, it's just to recall, and we're told that. when i was doing GCSEs, every teacher just told us exactly how to answer the question and pretty much said it's a memory test, not a knowledge test. that's a problem with the education system. we should be teaching kids how to learn, and encourage that so that they have passions later in life

by gleasongiovani 22 hours ago

If something isn't working for most people, then it needs to change.

by Anonymous 21 hours ago

I think there is some truth to this but the school system can and does fail some people, despite their best efforts. I went to a very rough comprehensive school back in the 1990s, and it was awful. It was one of those schools where they shoved people who hadn't secured places at any of the better schools so it was full of students with unmet behavioural and learning difficulties. Most of our teachers were either utterly useless or really didn't care. We were only there because we were legally mandated to be at school, and after we left we were either heading to the dole queue or prison. Ergo, Shakespeare and Pythagoras were wasted on us. We did have the odd outstanding teacher, but they were in a minority. Lessons were often disrupted by those who either couldn't or wouldn't behave. Teachers and governors were reluctant to kick out badly behaved children because "they have a right to education." The fact that they were effectively denying the rest of us our right to education didn't seem to matter. By some miracle, I left school with five reasonable GCSEs and went on to do Alevels, a BA and an MSc. I now have a reasonably well paid job. I was fortunate, but a lot of people aren't. School is extremely damaging for a lot of people.

by Thora54 21 hours ago

School, from what I know from talking to teachers and observing, has become - can my children in the classroom take this test and pass it. If they can't pass it I can lose my job or get disciplined for it. Real learning isn't really happening. Teachers spend a lot of time in discipline rather in teaching the class.

by Anonymous 21 hours ago

If you were born in this timeline of a computer potentially replacing your job in 5 years, I feel you'd struggle with motivation too.

by Anonymous 21 hours ago